Social media sites like Instagram have made it so much easier for small businesses to put themselves out there and build their own personal brand. Running your own business can be a handful, especially if it’s just you and no additional employees. Recent updates on Instagram have made it possible to utilize a search engine like Google in ways that have not been possible in the past.
The Most Recent Update
As of July 2025, search engines like Google are now able to display public Instagram posts on their results pages, turning Instagram into a very strong tool for search engine optimization (SEO) that businesses can take full advantage of. It is now easier than ever for small business owners and potential influencers to increase their business or brand’s visibility on Google, which will then bring in far more online traffic than they have had in the past.
What Does It Mean for Business Owners?
Building an online brand and maintaining an online presence is one of the hardest parts of being a small business owner in the age of social media. It can be hard to stand out as unique among many other businesses and brands that may be similar to yours or that sell a similar product. With this new Instagram update, you can align your social media strategy with SEO optimization in ways that you never could before. For new business owners, you can:
- Focus more on making quality content while becoming more visible on search engines. You may not even need a website or blog. If your entire online presence is on Instagram, you may be truly discoverable for the first time.
- Give more customers the chance to see your Instagram content when searching for something related to your business. People can stumble upon your content in many different ways, like hashtags or tagged posts, both of which can lead to an increase in your business.
- Ensure that your Instagram content has a much longer shelf life than it has had in the past. Your posts can appear in search engine results long after you first published them. You may experience random surges of interest that come from new people finding your content through Google searches.
Social Media May Be the Future of Online Searches
When it comes to maintaining a brand or building an online presence, one of the most important things you need to do is keep up with online trends. These trends are constantly shifting in ways that may not immediately make sense. In many ways, social media and search engines have never been more connected. Recent data from Sprout Social showed that over 40% of Gen Z use social media to search online instead of traditional search engines.
Social media sites like Instagram have become where Gen Z gets their news, follows their entertainment channels, and does their shopping. Instagram’s most recent update is following that trend by simply making all of those posts far more accessible to others who may not know how much Instagram has evolved in recent years.
Optimizing Your Own Instagram Posts
With this new Instagram update in place, the last thing you want is to be left behind as technology moves forward without you. It’s up to you to adapt to trends as they appear. You will want to tailor your Instagram posts to increase the chances of the post getting indexed by Google and appearing in searches, which will then get you noticed by potential customers. There are many different ways you can do this, including:
- Account professionalism. Keep up with posting as often as you can, make sure the account is public, and ensure that you have opted in to the update. If your page looks unprofessional, it will turn off potential customers.
- Research your customer base. Try to determine exactly what your ideal customer may be looking for in a Google search. Optimize your content by using certain blanket terms and possible keywords that your customers will likely search for that your business can provide. Do what you can to weave these keywords into your video screen text and captions.
- Don’t forget to utilize hashtags whenever you can. Hashtags have become one of the most widely used ways that content creators and online businesses use to stand out. Including them in your content can always help, even in ways that you might not expect.
- Don’t neglect alt text. Alt text is a short sentence that describes the photo you’re posting. It helps search engines understand your content and helps people who can’t see your image understand what they are seeing. Alt texts aren’t complicated and are often just simple descriptions. For videos, add subtitles so everyone can follow along, even if the sound is off.
- Consider geotagging your posts. Adding your location makes it easier for people to find your business, especially if they are searching for places near them already. Telling people where a certain photo was taken or shouting out your city in a video can go a long way towards optimizing your content.
- Audit your old content. You may have been at this for a long time, even before the recent indexing update. You will want to make sure that your old content aligns with the same views that your new content is focused on. You don’t want an old post to stir up controversy and alienate potential customers. You may want to add new keywords and edit your old content to match the new content.
Content from BCM Can Help You Optimize
Instagram’s latest update can work as a great new tool to grow your business and reach an entirely new client base. It can motivate you to change your content for the better or figure out a way to connect with new potential clients. At Better Content Matters, we understand how hard it can be to create a successful business. We focus on building content that reflects your business’s values and on making sure you have the right tools to succeed. Contact us to learn more.
